Thursday, September 25, 2008

THE STATE OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS WHEN IT IS READY TO FORFEIT BELIEF IN THE PERSONAL SELF AND A PERSONAL GOD, Part Two

Table of Contents

Today's Considerations
Recent Posts and Archives
Tools for Realization
Author's eBooks
Author's Paperback Books
Free eBooks
An Advaita Vedanta philosophy site, focusing on Realization, enlightenment, nisarga yoga, non-duality / nonduality, your original nature, dwelling as your natural state, and the teachings of Maharaj.

FROM A SITE VISITOR: After 2 years of putting thousands of thoughts and concepts that were rising in what I then described as "My Mind" up against the question, "Is That True"? I started to become aware (none of how I am saying this is quite true, but language is by nature separating, I am seeing) that nothing was true, and what I am NOT was clear. And now even what I appear to be, and what the world appears to be is okey dokey too, i just don't believe it anymore!

Anyway, my question is this. [The visitor at this point described her involvement in a quasi-spiritual religious group and revealed what seems to be the early stirrings of a less-blocked consciousness that is beginning to question the value of attachment to the group. She is also beginning to see, it seems, that the real attachment is not as much to the group as it is to the ego-states generated by membership in the group and to all of the related “doingness” that had previously been undertaken without any independent questioning on her part about whether or not any of the teachings or activities really make any sense.] She continued:

Ego is really clinging here and I would love to hear your response to this. I googled [certain topics] and there you were! I am not a student of Advaita, but after this "experience" i describe above, I was given a book on advaita and it MATCHED totally with this awareness, now aware of itself, in this space here. So strange to try and language this. Coming from no spiritual path, I am finding language very limiting. PS: Loving your blog. "My" head just nodding, YES YES YES as I read and recognize truth. L.L.

F.: To continue with the point offered yesterday, it is the task of the teacher to read or listen to the words of a seeker and to determine “where” on the “path” the person might be. Then, pointers can be offered that might allow the seeker to shift to the next level.

The key? The “state” of the consciousness, or more specifically, the degree to which programming has blocked the consciousness from accessing itSelf and from knowing itSelf. Only if the readiness is present (that is, only if the consciousness within can begin to question beliefs and ideas and concepts that have previously gone unquestioned) can pointers initiate any shift at all.

The book FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Realization) is a set of transcriptions of satsang sessions that were taped. One exchange touched on the subject of readiness:

F.: “Early on, my teacher guessed that one in ten thousand might make it to the ‘end’ [of the ‘path’ to Realization]; later, he predicted one in a million. He was only guessing, but he might have been close.

Questioner: “Not very good odds.”

F.: “Indeed.”

Questioner: "Maybe we need better teachers." [Laughter]

F.: "Indeed."

Questioner: “No fight? Ha.”

F.: “None. The variable is not the teacher. The readiness is all. Are you ready?”

Questioner: “Yes.”

F.: “We’ll see.”

In the case of the e-mail from the visitor cited above, it is obvious that the seeker is at the third of the seven steps to Realization. Most are placed in that level from early on as a result of religious indoctrination during childhood. Some “find religion” or “find god” or “find spirituality” later on and enter into the third level during adulthood.

Persons in the former group who were indoctrinated early on have little chance of shifting beyond the third step. Those in the latter group who have “come to” religion or spirituality later in life have a greater chance of shifting beyond that third step; however, few of those are likely to do so, either.

For those who came to religion or spirituality and/or belief in a personal god during their adult years, most merely abandoned their former personas (the “bad” ones) and simply replaced their former ego-states with new personas—religious or spiritual personas—and have been convinced that those are “good” ones.

Either way, false identities are false identities, and accepting religious and/or spiritual identifications as being real will block the finding of the True Self just as much as any other personas that are adopted.

When a seven-step “journey” fixates at the third step, then the play amounts to nothing more than “religious game-playing” or “kindergarten spirituality,” but the super religious or super spiritual think they are basking in the light of high noon when, in fact, it is only the early dawn.

In some rare cases, a person (a persona-player) might become conscious of her/his true state of discomfort and begin to question and begin to seek answers that are different from those that have been accepted as truth without questioning. Most, however, are so dissociated from their condition that they will continue to follow their "faith-based marching orders" and will question nothing. So it is. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

FOR THE FULL DISCUSSION OF THIS SUBJECT MATTER, YOU MAY ORDER:

  • Click SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (RECOVERING WHAT RELIGIONS LOST)

  • Click THE ESSENCE OF THE TEACHINGS

  • Click FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE (A Seven-Step Journey to Reality)

  • Click CONSCIOUSNESS/AWARENESS

  • Click FROM THE ABSOLUTE TO THE NOTHINGNESS
  • Recent Posts and Archives

    Tools Used by Other Seekers of Realization

    WATCHING an Advaita Vedanta Retreat: Watch a Downloadable computer file version of the Four-Day Advaita Retreat (Downloadable on PC only, not Apple.)

    ENROLLING in the Online Advaita Classes For information, visit Information on the Advaita Classes on the Internet To enroll visit Enroll in the Advaita Internet Course

    ATTENDING an Advaitin retreat with Floyd and being guided through all seven steps. For details of the retreats offered, please visit the retreat information site.

    ARRANGING a one-hour session via Skype or telephone with Floyd. (Skype is a free service.) Click the button to pay and you will be contacted to arrange a date and time for the call.

    Five Free eBooks

    Compliments of Andy Gugar, Jr.,
    the following eBooks are available without charge for you or for friends:

    I.
    "GOOD vs. EVIL?" or "IGNORANCE, STUPIDITY, and INSANITY?"

    The content of this eBook deals with one of the most common but erroneous beliefs that the non-Realized masses cling to and which they will fight about (and even kill over), namely, that there is a planet-wide duel going on between “the forces of good and evil” in the universe.

    Either (1) the ancient view is spot on: that the "ills of the planet" are rooted in evil people, in people not being religious enough or spiritual enough, and are caused solely by bad morality; or, (2) the "ills of the planet" are rooted in ignorance, stupidity and insanity and "being good" or "being moral" does not put an end to ignorance, does not eliminate stupidity, and does not treat insanity in any way.

    II.
    "THE VISION"

    Comments regarding the free eBook entitled “THE VISION”:

    “My thanks to you and Andy.” – Andrew “Mac” McMaster

    “Thanks so much for the book! And, by the way, it is brilliant and the most effective pointing that you have done. It has served to help clear the remaining blockages.” – Stan Cross

    “Greatly appreciate having “THE VISION” added to my Henderson resource library that is situated on the right side of my bed for easy access! Eternally grateful for what was received and what was given.” – Robert Rigby

    “‘THE VISION’ is such a well-written, condensed version of the Nisarga Yoga approach to understanding and enjoying Reality that I feel it can serve as a must-read ‘meditation guide’ for all earnest seekers.” – Andy Gugar, Jr.

    III.
    "Sapolsky, Maharaj, and the Non-Dual Teachings"

    Dr. Robert Maurice Sapolsky is an American neuroendocrinologist; a professor of biology, neuroscience, and neurosurgery at Stanford University; a researcher; an author; and a Research Associate at the National Museums of Kenya.

    There is much that a non-dualist or Advaitin or Nisargan can relate to by comparing and contrasting what Sapolsky reveals about the way certain troops of baboons live in Africa with the way that humans abide all around the globe.

    This 152-page eBook catalogues the common, non-dual message shared by Sapolsky and Maharaj and reveals the ways that Sapolsky’s scientific research supports the non-dual pointers offered by Maharaj.

    IV.
    Seeking

    In “PART ONE” it will be seen that most persons on the planet are not seeking, and most will never seek, but for those who are seeking, most will face several obstacles:

    In “PART TWO” of this book, it will be seen why many criticized Maharaj for “changing his message in his later talks.” It will be seen that the changes were not about changing the message per se as much as about changing his methodology as he experimented with one version of the Ultimate Medicine after another in order to try to find an effective means for addressing the Ultimate Sickness.

    He tried a religious version of the Medicine, a Spiritual version of the Medicine, and finally settled on a version which addressed to Sickness at its core . . . at the mental and emotional level.

    V.
    "THE MOST DANGEROUS BELIEF OF ALL"

    “Dangerous” is a term that can only apply during the relative existence, but of those who do commit suicide, for example, how many shoot themselves in the foot over and over until they “bleed out”? None. They shoot themselves in the head. Why? In order to try to stop the noise - to try to stop the chatter of a thousand monkeys – to stop the noisy mind which is the area that stores the ideas, notions, concepts, mind-stuff, etc. which drives them into the depths of insanity.

    And what are those ideas, notions, concepts, etc. called, collectively? "Their beliefs." The irony? They are not their beliefs at all. They are the beliefs of “others” that were set in place via programming, conditioning, etc. and which persons then think are their own.

    And what are those beliefs rooted in, and what reinforces those beliefs and convinces persons that they are sacred and worth fighting over and even sometimes worth dying for? Blind faith.

    This 337-page eBook discusses those issues in detail.

    To read any or all of the free eBooks, please double-click the "FREEBIES" link at the top of this page